Chatbots telling us what we want. Robots making our coffee. Baristas reduced to smiling servers. If Starbucks and other brands get their way, this is the future: a frictionless, interactionless, lifeless coffee experience.
Another week, another smorgasbord of coffee news. Including:
In the face of a rapidly-changing climate, World Coffee Research has launched an extensive experiment to try to breed more durable coffee varieties. The goal, according to WCR CEO Vern Long, “is to develop trees that are optimized for a range of production environments—and ultimately give farmers more climate-resilient options.”
Bloomberg wrote another of their “your coffee is about to get more expensive” pieces (the press loves this type of article) but at least this one has a bit more nuance and context.
Celebrities of all kinds have their own coffee companies, including big names like Tom Hanks, Millie Bobby Brown, and Jimmy Butler as well as, er, Rudy Giuliani. But have we ever had a sitting head of state—from a coffee-producing country, no less—launch their own coffee brand? Say hello to Bean of Fire, started by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Read more about all these stories, plus some slightly counterintuitive-sounding research on decaf coffee and sleep deprivation, over at Fresh Cup Magazine:
I'm a coffee writer and creator of The Pourover. Based in Scotland, I have over a decade of experience in the specialty coffee industry. Ask me about coffeewashing. It's pronounced Fin (he/him)
